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Once in a lifetime

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself
Well…How did I get here?


I frequently listen to this song by the Talking Heads when I am in the process of making a big decision or simply reflecting on my disposition. Over the past few weeks, this song has found its way into my various playlists during workouts, commutes, and downtime. I’ve had a lot to think about and a lot to be grateful for at my current stage in life. I recently finished my manuscript for Corwin Press and two weeks ago I accepted the position of director of technology at Grafton Public Schools. While I am excited to get started and embrace new challenges that lie ahead, I can’t help but ask, “How did I get here?”


A year ago, I was also listening to “Once in A Lifetime” as I approached a similar career transition. I was in the process of leaving Burlington Public Schools after two exciting years as their instructional technology specialist and would be moving on and up to the director of technology for Groton-Dunstable Regional School District. This decision did not come easy, but ultimately it was the best move for my career. As little as four years ago, I was abruptly let go by a Charter school in Philadelphia, along with our Principal and two other teachers, on what the CEO deemed “A judgement call”. And now I find myself reflecting on that day (July 19, 2010) and how it felt to lose my job so abruptly and without any documented reason, but ultimately how that day provoked me and reenergized my career. Since then, I’ve experienced a wealth of successes and connected with a host of great educators who have challenged and inspired me to be better.  


Over the course of this year at Groton-Dunstable, I tried my best to listen and lead with confidence. I inherited a technology department that was battered and bruised but willing to change and adapt to new ideas and philosophies. As I move on, I leave behind a technology team that is a cohesive unit that is dedicated, driven, and passionate about integrating and supporting education technology. What’s more, I leave behind meaningful relationships that have blossomed over the course of this year.


Leaving this team was a difficult decision. Of all the successes the technology team has had over the course of this year, the one I am most proud of is the way this team came together to do great things. And, to do great things and continue to work tirelessly under the dark cloud of a budget crisis that persisted for most of the school year. Their willingness and constant support provided glimmers of sunshine throughout the district during those stormy days.


In my first year as district leader, I have learned many things. The most important thing I have learned is that a school leader should always be a good listener. He or she should be humble and willing to embrace a collective consensus, but confident to make difficult decisions. A leader must know what it feels like to fail, but equally, understand how to use that failure as a driving force to be better and learn why that failure occurred. A school leader should not seek accolades or awards, but challenge those with whom he or she leads to strive for greatness. I have never won an award for anything I have done in education. The only award I need is seeing the successes of the team I lead and the students and teachers I support.



I got here because of the people around me. An effective leader understands the talents and skills of his or her team and does his or her best to let those talents and skills flourish. Ultimately, the people around me have worked hard to make me look good. I thank the GDRSD tech team and the entire Groton-Dunstable community for giving me a chance to lead their technology team and support teaching and learning with technology.
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I’m a failure

CC image via flickr by John Liu
Last week I failed at something. I interviewed for a job and I didn’t get it. Or, in the context of a high stakes, standardized tests, I failed and the only thing I learned was that I wasn’t good at that job and never would be. While my family, friends and colleagues didn’t consider it a fail, I thought of how my situation might parallel students taking a high stakes test. In my situation, I already possess a great job and was simply acting upon a great opportunity that came my way. Additionally, after receiving the news I was able to follow up and keep the conversation lively.

Unfortunately, this is not the case for many of our students. The stress and importance placed upon a test can hinder a student dramatically. What’s more, this annual occurrence places a negative stigma around school and what the experience of learning should be. While the stress and desire to succeed is easily parallel to interviewing for a job, I know I will gladly interview again. For many of our students, this arbitrary measure of skill will attach to their name and live on in their educational portfolio.

As educators we’re constantly striving to prepare our students for the real world, yet we’re not giving them real world challenges in our schools because of the importance of testing and results. Our mission statements state that we will educate and produce good citizens, yet state and federal officials treat our students like another brick in the wall.

Some may see my experience as a failure, but I see it as a learning moment. The interview process was not only an exercise in self reflection, but an experience that has given me new perspective. We need to instill the same insights in our students and provide them with greater challenges than a test. Life is not multiple choice or fill in the blank. It’s composed of new challenges each day both in our personal lives and professional lives. It requires that we constantly adapt and consistently learn as much as we can.

Some of the most beneficial learning moments in my life did not include the moments when everyone on the team got a trophy, but rather, when I didn’t get that trophy. I’ve learned more through my “failures” than through my successes. And each time I grew as a learner. This isn’t to say we should encourage our students to strive for failure, but teach them about humility and that sometimes there’s only one winner. But, despite that loss, students should employ self reflection and use the loss not as an endpoint, but a springboard towards the next success.

Unfortunately, our national curriculum and our state tests don’t allow for this opportunity. State tests are final, and don’t encourage reflection or motivation to learn beyond that particular assessment. What’s more, the challenge is minimal and has limited application in everyday life. While I may have “failed” I know it’s not final and that I will learn from this moment. Wouldn’t it be great if our state tests encouraged the same? This is a call to encourage students to take risks and not fear failure, but embrace the learning that’s associated with it. Our education policy makers at every level owe our students so much more than what we’re offering them.

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What’s lost during testing

CC image via redorbit.com
This past week our high school students (9th and 11th grades) completed the new PARCC online field test. The setup and implementation was a collaborative process of many players in the school system. The test itself required many hours over several weeks for the tech coordinators, principals, teachers, administration, and eventually students. Valuable time and energy in the course of a school year was dedicated to this test. The test also took away reading, creating, exploring, and making time.


There’s waning doubt that the PARCC test, or any test for that matter, has any impact on a student’s learning. The results are simply cheap data that disrupts the creative, innovative teaching and learning practices that many teachers and students desire. The mere act of recalling information that has been strategically worded by a testing company for several hours with limited breaks holds no merit anywhere outside of the test itself. Students leave a test drained and feeling unaccomplished. Teachers nervously await the results. The entire process is a drain and an infringement on innovative teaching and learning practices.


However, I don’t possess the solution to an alternative metric. But, I have some thoughts that I hope future generations of educational theorists, administrators, and politicians consider. And one pertinent example of what learning should look like.


This past Friday I came across a piece on CNN.com titled, “Teen to government: Change your typeface, save millions”. As I perused the article, I came away with a simple sentiment, “That’s it, that’s what learning looks like!” In short, a 14 year-old student developed a novel solution for his school to cut down on expensive paper handouts which inevitably led him to suggesting a switch to the US Government from Times New Roman to Garamond that would save the Government 234 million annually.


This is what learning looks like. What I witnessed after the PARCC exam, or for that matter, any test, was not. Learning should be rewarding and fulfilling for students. They should get excited about it and have time to experiment with it, and occasionally fail at it. Ultimately, students should own their learning and strive to solve a problem or conquer a challenge. Suvir Mirchandani accomplished both.


For a moment, if educational policy makers could step back from the testing lobbyists and see what students can do in the absence of mind numbing tests, they might see change. They might realize that the future of education is not about recalling information, but about making, designing, and creating. This is what our global economy demands and it’s the fuel it is currently running on. If we continue to proceed with blinders on and think that standardized tests are nothing more than a cheap filtering system, we may miss out on some great innovations and contributions to our world.

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We need to prepare students for their future, not ours

CC image via flickr by flickingerbrad
I will no longer defend or debate EdTech as some radical idea in schools. I can no longer waste my efforts on the “value of EdTech debate”. The simple fact is that education technology is no longer a stand alone class. It is not something you simply add on to your school. It is a literacy that is woven through the fabric of every school, K-12, and throughout our highly-competitive, global economy. Diminishing its value or merit is no longer acceptable. It’s the equivalent of neglecting to integrate reading and writing skill sets across the curriculum.


And for the record, I realize clearly that previous generations grew up without all of these gadgets and turned out just fine. I get it. The statement is crystal clear and yes, many generations grew up without something that the next generation adopts. I grew up without Internet and mobile technology and turned out perfectly fine. Although some would debate that last statement. Regardless of how previous generations learned, exposure to some technology is essential for students today. I’m not asserting that we need to place every student in front of an iPad from Kindergarten on, but simply give them the opportunity to use it. And not just use it, but provide access and opportunities for students throughout a school district to leverage the technology beyond word processing and PowerPoint presentations.


Technology is a literacy that is expected in higher education and in our economy. It is a universal language spoken by the entire world regardless of the profession. Our current students will encounter one of the toughest job markets in generations. Gone are the days of falling into a profession and riding that wave for 30 plus years, however; its not to say those jobs are not still available. They are, but they’re dwindling as automation and outsourcing continue to expand.


The contemporary job market requires us to adapt, continually learn, and apply various skill sets in many directions. We have to multi-task, connect beyond the work day, and collaborate and connect both locally and globally. And, while I am promoting that exposure to technology and digital tools is essential, we must do so responsibly. Teaching students how to balance technology usage along with offline socializing and interpersonal skills is essential. But, to proclaim that technology simply distracts, diminishes social skills, and holds lesser value than other content areas is irresponsible. And to do so not only let’s our students down, but the mission statements that are emblazoned on the walls of our schools.


It’s equally important to expose students to information literacy skill sets. As databases grow and information continues to evolve into a paperless formats, it’s essential to teach students how to question effectively and efficiently. In a world flooded with information to read, libraries have never been more important. Along with digital and information literacy skill sets, it has never been more important that to promote and encourage a love of reading across all formats. And not to simply read, but to question, analyze, discern, and synthesize with other mediums.

I can no longer exert energy on this debate. And my point comes down to a single phrase…

We need to prepare students for their future, not ours.
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Why Every School Needs A Garage: An Educon 2.6 Conversation Preview

This Saturday I have the privilege of presenting a conversation at Educon 2.6 held at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. This conference has been a staple every year for me and in my career. Each year I’ve attended Educon, I’ve come away feeling good about our profession of education and excited to share and integrate what I’ve learned in my classroom and throughout the school district. What I’ve always liked about Educon is that it’s focused on conversations, rather than presentations.


This year I am excited to present on the idea of “Developing Makerspaces That Count”. While this subject is very broad in it’s description, for me, it comes back to a single word we need to address every day in education: Trust. When we put trust in our students and our teachers, we see great things happen. However, this shift doesn’t happen overnight and takes time to build this culture.


We hear stories of how some of our greatest innovators in the past decade (namely, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates) rebelled against a system and developed products that changed the world. And while these three men make great stories and, in some cases, movies, I’m always left with the question, “What if they didn’t have to rebel against the system and their creativity was fostered in school?” What if their respective schools had maker spaces available to them? Would we be having the same conversations about them today?


While the hypothetical alternate universe is fun to imagine, their actual timeline suggests that we, as educators, need to promote, provoke, and integrate makerspaces for kids to explore, take risks, tinker, discover, fail, and try again.


As the current global economy shifts and changes almost weekly, we need to stay ahead of the game and quite frankly, the American education system has not. With continued focus on high stakes testing, silver-bullet reforms, and common curriculum, the American education system continues to fall behind other countries both creatively and on the innovation front. This is not to say that allowing students a place to play during the course of a school day is going to dramatically reform our educational system and move America back to the top, but it’s a start. It’s a start that will give students the chance during the course of a school day to engage in something they’re truly passionate about.


And what helps provoke this change is beginning to give students the freedom to explore throughout the course of the school day. Some schools have integrated Google’s 20% time philosophy into their school day. Suzie Boss explores this in her recent post at Edutopia. At Burlington high school and middle school, I helped create a student run genius bar. This space and course allowed students the chance to question, create, troubleshoot, and discover. At Groton-Dunstable High School we developed a tech task force. It’s the same concept I developed at Burlington and has greatly impacted all of our schools. In fact, one student was able to develop an android app that helped our tech team inventory our entire fleet of Google Chromebooks. Michelle Luhtala, Library Department Chair at New Canaan High School developed a culture of trust by putting the onus on the students to take responsibility for their learning and the devices by which they learn.


And, I’m certain I could continue to list great examples of innovative ways of creating makerspaces in education. But that’s why Educon is important. The purpose of my conversation is to collectively expand on these ideas and concepts and see if we can create new ideas that work and will count in the course catalog of a school.


Six years ago when the Science Leadership Academy launched the Educon conference the students and conference advisors were not only launching a great opportunity for educators to connect, but they were giving us a space to make, share, and listen. I’m looking forward to attending and presenting at Educon 2.6 and anticipate many conversations about how we can all make the greatest impact on teaching and learning.
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Find your digital space

CC image via flickr by Alan Levine
I’ve been sharing ideas on a blog since 2008. Right, I’m cool. But really, sharing information is a powerful thing. Sharing through digital spaces is not only efficient, economical and convenient, but it’s super powerful. It’s hard to comprehend, but I’ve shared something nearly every day since social networks developed and became readily available. What’s more, I’ve shared nearly everything in my teaching career via a blog, Twitter, or Google+. At this juncture, if you’re not sharing what you’re doing digitally, you’re missing out on some great ideas happening in education and within other contexts. And, quite frankly, you’re missing out on a plethora….yeah that’s right….a plethora of resources. As educators, we no longer have to work in isolation.


So here are some ideas and some ways to elevate your digital space.


Find a platform – Blogger vs Google Sites
This is probably the most mind numbing part of the process. You could be in a room of ten people and they would all recommend something different. My two cents, it depends on what you want to share, how frequently you want share, and your audience.


If you want to stick within your google apps for education ecosystem, then these platforms are one way to go. Also, if you plan on posting daily, or weekly, this is the platform for you. A blog is intended  for periodic information and a website is for static information that may change occasionally. Consider blogger to be your newsletter 2.0. GDHS principal, Mike Mastrullo, uses blogger to present updates and share information about what is happening at the school. Parents subscribe via email receive an email alert anytime Mr. Mastrullo posts something to his blog. Plus, parents can bookmark his blog site and have a single reference point rather than searching through emails.


Like blogger, Google Sites will also allow you to remain in the GAFE ecosystem. Plus, sites give you the opportunity to collaborate and share within your grade level teams or with your students. For example, our fourth grade team at Florence Roche elementary school is building one site, but each teacher has their own page that they can construct. Sites can remain private if necessary and teachers can only invite those they wish to the website. This is important to remember depending on your schools’ AUP and publishing rights forms.


Unlike Blogger, Google Sites serves as a collaborative digital space and a way to share and house static information. Blogger or a blog is meant to be updated periodically. For example, Florence Roche elementary principal, Liz Garden updates her blog every Monday morning. It includes a topical post along with information about what she is reading, events happening in her school, informal classroom observations, and resources that she’s found. This blog not only serves as a great resource for the Florence Roche school community, but a professional portfolio for Liz and her great work as principal.


Google sites also serves as a strong option for teacher and student digital portfolios. Here’s just one example of how a Groton-Dunstable Regional High School independent study student created with Sites. It’s also important to note that the final product was not a directive, but the student simply saw that the technology was available, and leveraged it to make her portfolio shine.


Develop your brand
After you select your platform, the next phase is creating is branding yourself and your digital space. Within the context of an educational digital space, it’s best to be consistent about what you share, the tone of your writing and the topics you cover. For example, it’s probably not the best idea to share information on the great things happening at your school one week and then follow up with a diatribe about how common core is destroying the youth of America. It’s best to stay on a steady path with a consistent theme or message.


Again, Liz Garden and Mike Mastrullo do a really good job of this by presenting a consistent tone in their writing, staying on topic with a theme, and organizing their posts and their blogs in a way that is appealing to the school community.


Share it


“If you make something and don’t share it, was it made?” – Mark Hatch, CEO Techshop


Digital spaces and platforms, in conjunction with social media, have allowed us to share our work to a greater audience. Educators, who once lived and worked in an isolated environment; within their district; within their schools; within their departments, now have the ability to not only share resources and information, but consume and integrate what others are sharing.


Like finding a platform for your digital space, finding a consistent place to share is also important. I share consistently to three social networks: Facebook, Google+, and Twitter. However, when you start, it’s best to stick with one and branch out as you progress down this path. I started with Twitter, found common hashtags, and eventually created a network of educators that I connected with via Twitter or, who I had met at a conference or workshop.


At Groton-Dunstable, we created our own hashtag – #gdrsdchat – and use it to connect our students, teachers, and greater school community. I would highly recommend this and encourage staff to start off working within your school’s common hashtag, before swimming out into deeper water. It’s a good, comfortable learning environment and take the idea of personal learning communities to a new level and space. We also posted a #gdrsdchat hashtag widget on the front page of our district’s website. This is another way of sharing information and resources about our school community.


A digital space is extremely important for an educator. It not only provides the user with a limitless place to organize and share his or her thoughts and information, but serves as a living archive. If you have suggestions, examples, or new ideas not mentioned in this post, please share in the comments below.


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Mr. Duncan Goes to Twitter (and you should too)

Last Monday, I, along with many other educators, had the unique opportunity to connect with the US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan on Twitter. Tom Murray organized the chat via the #edtechchat hashtag. Around 8pm Secretary Duncan made his way into the chat column and the barrage of tweets ensued. For someone trying to break into Twitter, this was probably not the best forum, however; it did show the impact connecting this way can have.


As the chat continued, Secretary Duncan began asking questions using the Q1 – A1 format. Users prefaced their tweets with A1 (based on the question number) and ended each one with the hashtag #edtechchat. Following the chat was nearly impossible in real-time as tweets cruised down the screen in a frenzied manner. Occasionally I tried to retweet a good question or comment someone posted, but overall it was hard to keep pace.


Eventually, I posed a question to Secretary Duncan in which he was kind enough to reply (above photo). Once this happened, I felt pretty cool. I had to explain to several people how we actually connected and that it was legit and that I didn’t actually know Secretary Duncan, but we now shared a brief connection in time. This occurrence also caused me to reflect momentarily on the connections and opportunities that I’ve had since joining Twitter five years ago.


In those five years, I have made great strides in my career. Three years ago I was let go, along with four other teachers and the principal from a charter school in Philadelphia on July 19, 2010. Soon after, I took to my blog, wrote a post announcing my availability for work, and shared it on Twitter. I had comments and suggestions from all over the country. Eventually I connected with Patrick Larkin and started working at Burlington Public Schools a year later as an instructional technology specialist. Two years later I became the Director of Technology for Groton-Dunstable Regional School District. I’m not saying that Twitter is the reason for my all of my recent successes, but getting out there and making and sustaining meaningful connections definitely had a big part in my career path.


I don’t think Twitter is the key ingredient to being a connected educator, nor do I feel it’s required for someone to be a connected educator. My point is that Twitter can be a really great thing and provide many of us with access to opportunities we otherwise may not be privy too. As educators, we should make connections regardless of the medium. EdCamps, conferences (local and national), and learning communities within a district are great ways to connect as well. Jumping into the social media ring will simply heighten those offline connections and broaden the scope of your learning.


If you decide you want to get into Twitter, I will suggest a few steps that I share with anyone who asks me about it.


1. Once you setup your account, encourage a few colleagues to join as well. Develop a “hashtag” for your cohort and share a few things with each other using the hashtag. This will expose you to ways in which you can share, filter, and organize your twitter experience.


2. Download Tweetdeck for Mac or PC. There are a lot of Twitter applications out there, but my preference has always been Tweetdeck. Mobile platforms will be different, but the Twitter app for iPhone is probably the best way to go.


3. Organize. One of the great features about Twitter is that you can tailor it directly to how your liking. Lists are a great way of organizing people (i.e. English Teachers) and what they share online. I’ve created lists and then I can easily browse through those lists whether it’s on the mobile or desktop platforms. Before you tweet, organize!


4. I would suggest limiting your involvement initially in Twitter chats. They can be overkill for even the most experienced user and can sometimes be an echo chamber of pithy platitudes. The key is to organize first and spend a good amount of time listening, lurking, and absorbing what you see. Twitter is a place where you can simply consume, however; it’s always better to share. My suggestion would be to start a small hashtag chat within your school community and then branch out into larger chats like #edchat


5. “Don’t take Twitter too seriously.” This is a great piece of advice from Dean Shareski who has been sharing on Twitter for awhile. Twitter can be a conversation, it can be a resource, and it can be funny. We all need to laugh a little, but must maintain a healthy balance between professionalism and over sharing cat videos. Plus, don’t get caught up with pseudo celebrity Twitter hierarchy of educators. One hundred thousand followers does not always equal credibility. Again, Twitter is most useful when it is organized. Follow people who you have read, connected with in person, or who are simply good at sharing quality information and occasionally funny.

Over the years I’ve learned and gained a lot from connecting on Twitter. It’s a community that allows me the flexibility to ask a question or have a conversation with people all over the world anytime, anywhere. This medium has had an impact on my life, my friends, and my career. The key in all of this is to share what you do and highlight your teaching, your school, and your district whether you are on Twitter or offline with colleagues. My brief connection with Secretary Duncan won’t change or reform educational policy across the country, but it reinforces the power of this medium. Secretary Duncan may not enact or change anything based on the Twitter chat, but it shows us all he is listening. That’s a powerful connection.
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Defining a connected educator

EdCamp Philly 2011

There’s a phrase from a video that describes what Creative Commons is that I commonly use when describing what I aspire a school culture to be.

This phrase defines what a school culture should should be and can be if it’s not quite there yet. It reinforces the importance of working together for a common goal and providing the best strategies for teaching and learning. One of the ways I’m helping bring this phrase to life is by integrating new technologies and applications to connect teachers, students, and community. But, it doesn’t stop at providing hardware and software. It means building bridges within a school community that leverage these technologies and applications at a pace that is comfortable for everyone involved. For some it will be exploring a blog and possibly Twitter, for others it will be attending our Thursday EdTech Genius Bar or a conference. The point to remember is that connected educators are not just the educators you see blogging and tweeting, but also the ones you see developing offline connections.
What I have been witnessing at Groton-Dunstable Regional School District, is a school community anxious to integrate new technologies and design new paradigms for teaching and learning. And, this is happening in part by bringing our teachers together each Thursday for an optional EdTech Genius Bar. Teachers are not simply jumping into the Twitter waterfall in order to be a connected educator, rather they are physically connecting and sharing beyond our Thursday events. Many of our devices this year are just launching due to some shipping issues and setup time, but in the first week of this launch I’ve noticed a general excitement for integrating technology, rethinking lessons, and connecting our students to the world.
One of the big misconceptions is that in order to create a shared culture of learning every staff member must join the social media race. While Twitter, Google Plus, Facebook and MOOCs are all great opportunities to expand access to connections, resources, and opportunities, bringing teachers together offline is priceless.
The offline world is where I, personally, have made some of my strongest connections. Many of these connections started with social media use, but elevated when I made the offline connections. I attended conferences like EduCon in Philadelphia that is hosted yearly by the Science Leadership Academy students and principal, Chris Lehmann. I attended and hosted several EdCamps in the past few years and continued to make and strengthen connections during these events. It’s imperative for educators to connect in some way in both worlds. I am grateful for making connections on Twitter and through my blog. It’s opened many doors for me. I am equally grateful that I attended these conferences and went beyond my computer screen to connect with the educators I’ve met online.
Being a connected educator means making both offline and online connections. No matter your connection medium, it’s important to keep having conversations and sharing what we do with others. It’s important for us to be transparent and share what we do with others regardless if it’s on a blog or offline personal learning communities. I’m not one for labels or titles. Let’s all be careful with how we define a connected educator and keep in mind those who are making powerful connections offline.
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Gobsmacked

There are moments in the course of a career that every educator will remember. Today I had one of those moments. And, although it just happened, I am certain it will resonate for years to come. 

I’ll try and capture this story concisely. 
July 1st I started my tenure as the director of technology for Groton-Dunstable Regional School District. My first job was to provide advocacy and support for technology throughout our district. GD is a district that consists of a wonderful, supportive community, progressive, dedicated educators and administration, and students who are bright and kind. Up until my arrival, technology was an afterthought. This is not to say that the tech team was not working hard or dedicated, but simply, there was no voice or leadership for technology in the district. 
My first two initiatives included upgrading the network infrastructure district wide and transitioning our staff from a first class email system to a Google Apps for Edu environment that would include accounts for both teachers and students. I also purchased 600 Chromebooks for students to use across five schools. And this is where the story begins. 
We’re currently in the process of organizing 600 Chromebooks into groups and carts for each school to use. Plus, I want to match the serial numbers on each device with a cart. When you enroll chromebooks they enroll but are not grouped (NOTE: there may be a way of automatically enrolling into specific groups, but I had some inconsistencies with auto-enroll). So the solution was to group the chromebooks into 25, enroll them, and then plug them into carts while documenting the serial numbers. A cumbersome process. 
When I arrived at GD high school this morning I got to meet some of the “Tech Task Force” students. The tech task force takes the help desk model I created at Burlington High School and presents it with a different name and schedule. 
I walked in and noticed Ryan scanning the back of Chromebooks. To me, it looked as if he was taking a picture of each devices serial number and bar code. He wasn’t. He said…

I actually created a script with python that uses an android API for a bar code scanner that will scan the device’s bar code and push it directly to a CSV file.

Of course you did.

He did this on his own, without any demand from us. This was not homework, he will not be tested on it by the state or federal government, and he did not receive a rubric or a grade. Ryan simply saw a problem and developed an efficient solution using a skill set that in many schools is not being taught. And I’m not referring to computer science, but simply time to create, develop, and explore beyond a common curriculum. Ryan saved our tech team a few days worth of work and impressed me beyond anything I expected to see this Friday morning.

Ryan is not common and does not fit into the common core curriculum. Ryan has raced beyond what our federal government deems “the top”. Most ETS tests are beneath Ryan. And, while I understand that not all students are like Ryan and the moment I witnessed this morning was very unique, it doesn’t create an excuse for rethinking and redesigning our education system. America needs a system that fosters creativity, exploration and discovery, mistakes, and innovation. That’s a system that we owe our students.

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My network

I had one of those conversations yesterday that I won’t forget. But first, let me provide some context to this story. While I was teaching the help desk course last fall at Burlington High School, I had a student ask his Guidance Counselor if he could work on one of the iMac machines that had XCODE installed on it during 5th period every Thursday. I agreed and took on Gilad as an independent study.


Every Thursday Gilad quietly entered the help desk room and opened XCODE. Our interaction was limited, but over his shoulder I could see he was doing work far beyond my knowledge base. Gilad entered the same way every Thursday for four months. Around January, he asked me if we had a developer account with Apple. We did. I set him up with Bob Cunha (BPS Director of Technology) and Bob got him set up, his device registered and explained the process of app submission.


In a matter of a few months Gilad had taken time out of his study hall and developed a voice recording and submission application that will eventually be used by the BHS Guidance Department for setting up appointments with students.


A few months later, Gilad approached me during lunch and asked if I knew of any programming opportunities or internships for the summer. I said I would check back with him and started seeking out my network. I contacted two friends at Google in Cambridge first. Unfortunately they did not have anything at the time. Plus, most of their deadlines had already past. I continued to search until I remembered my brief consulting work I did with MobileAware in early 2012. I contacted my friend, and MobileAware CEO, Armin Gebauer to see if he had any openings for internships. He mentioned that they had just created an iOS development team. I connected Armin with Gilad and they eventually set up an interview. Gilad soon accepted the internship and has been working there for the past few weeks.


Yesterday, I decided to check in with Gilad to see how he was doing. Here is the transcript of our brief conversation:



And this is why yesterday was a good day for me. I was able to establish a connection for a student and help him find a learning environment that not only challenges him, but connects him with professionals who can mentor and inspire him. And that, I feel, is part of being a good teacher and connected educator.


I’m not writing this post to boast. I simply phoned up a connection and made a match. The piece of this that caused me to pause and reflect is how the connection was made. In many circles I hear the first step to being a connected educator is Twitter. It’s imperative that we, as educators, sign up for Twitter and dive head first into an oncoming wave. Respectfully, I have to disagree with this sentiment (which is a generalization for the most part). While Twitter has its merits, it will never match personal connections.


I connected with Armin by accident. I just happened to sit next to him and his wife one night out for dinner. Being two extroverts, Armin and I began discussing our work and it led to me getting hired as a consultant with MobileAware. When my tenure ended at MobileAware, I continued to connect with Armin. I connected with Gilad through his Guidance Counselor. And finally I connected Armin with Gilad.


I’m not trying to argue the merits of Twitter, but simply offer a different path for new teachers looking to test the waters of social media. There are days when I can’t quite grasp the credibility of Twitter voices: the blind re-tweeting, the pseudo celebrity aura, the echo chamber, the hierarchy, the “let’s change the etymology of the word cheating (and every other word in order to show what a progressive, disruptor I am” persona. It’s deafening. And quite frankly, if I were mentoring a new teacher, I’d tell them to hold off on Twitter.


Consider making personal, in person connections in lieu of Twitter. And, when you’re ready, embrace Twitter develop a way to filter your stream and vet your following for credibility. Spend a lot of time listening, processing, and actually reading what’s being shared. And finally, don’t get caught up in the noise. I encourage Twitter use amongst educators, but balk at the idea of it being necessary for all new and current teachers. It’s simply a tool. A tool that I’ve embraced criticized and used to share many of these posts.
Before we rush our new teachers or students into the world of Twitter, let’s take a moment to forge a personal, meaningful connection with them.  Establish credibility and take time to listen and engage. In doing so you may just help find that student or teacher find their passion.